Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and a semiconductor substrate

1. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising:

forming an alignment mark in a planned cutting line region of a first surface of a semiconductor substrate;

forming a test pattern on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate;

after the test pattern is formed, forming a stacked structure including first insulating films and second insulating films that are alternately stacked, above the first surface of the semiconductor substrate;

removing a portion of the stacked structure present above the alignment mark;

after said removing, filling a region from which the portion of the stacked structure is removed with a third insulating film;

after said filling with the third insulating film, attaching a support substrate on a side of the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, and then thinning a second surface of the semiconductor substrate opposite to the first surface;

after said thinning, forming a resist on the thinned second surface, aligning the semiconductor substrate for a lithography process by causing infrared light to pass through the semiconductor substrate from the thinned second surface, and performing positional alignment for exposure of a resist pattern based on the location of the alignment mark using infrared light reflected from the alignment mark; and

after said aligning the semiconductor substrate, exposing the resist, opening a pattern in the exposed resist to form the resist pattern, forming a trench penetrating the semiconductor substrate from the thinned second surface to the first surface using the resist pattern, and filling the trench with metal to form an electrode penetrating through the semiconductor substrate.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

the portion of the stacked structure over the alignment mark is removed simultaneously with processing of the stacked structure present in an element forming region.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

forming a multilayer wiring layer over the stacked structure after the stacked structure is formed above the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; and

removing the portion of the multilayer wiring layer over the alignment mark.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the line width of the alignment mark is greater than or equal to 4 μm.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

simultaneously removing portions of the stacked structure over the test structure and over the alignment mark.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

forming a peripheral circuit on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate prior to forming the stacked structure on the semiconductor substrate; and

simultaneously removing portions of the stacked structure over the peripheral circuit and over the alignment mark.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

forming a shallow trench isolation structure by depositing a shallow trench isolation material over the first surface of the substrate and into openings extending inwardly of the first surface of the substrate; and

forming the alignment mark from the shallow trench isolation material.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

forming a gate structure by forming a gate material over the first surface of the substrate and etching the gate material to form individual gates; and

simultaneously etching the gate material to form the alignment mark.

9. A method of forming a semiconductor device, comprising:

providing a substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface;

forming an alignment mark on the first surface of the substrate;

forming a test pattern at a location thereon other than the position of the alignment mark on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate;

after the test pattern is formed, forming a plurality of stacked layers over the first surface of the substrate including over the alignment mark, the stacked layers including first insulating films and second insulating films that are alternately stacked;

removing a portion of the plurality of stacked layers located over the alignment mark;

after said removing, filling a region from which the portion of the plurality of stacked layers is removed with a third insulating film;

after said filling with the third insulating film, attaching a support substrate on a side of the first surface of the substrate, and then thinning the second surface of the substrate; and

after said thinning, forming a patterned mask layer over the thinned second surface of the substrate, using the alignment mark visualized through the substrate by an alignment system, to align the pattern of the mask layer, forming a trench penetrating the substrate from the thinned second surface to the first surface using the pattern of the mask layer, and filling the trench with metal to form an electrode penetrating through the substrate.

10. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising:

removing a portion of the plurality of stacked layers located over the test pattern simultaneously with the removing of the portion of the plurality of stacked layers located over the alignment mark.

11. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising:

forming a peripheral circuit on the first surface of the substrate at a location thereon other than the position of the alignment mark; and

removing a portion of the plurality of stacked layers located over the peripheral circuit simultaneously with the removing of the portion of the plurality of stacked layers located over the alignment mark.